Many cellular radiotelephones have an auto-answer feature that automatically answers an incoming call without activating the telephone's alert tone. The radiotelephone can then perform some predetermined task after answering such as receiving the voice or a dual tone multi-frequency (DTMF) message from the caller.
The auto-answer feature may be disabled when it is not needed and reenabled at a later time. The user may want to reenable the feature during an incoming call while in a situation where using the auto-answer feature is more convenient than actually receiving the call. This type of situation can occur at a location, such as a theater or court room, where the ringing of the telephone would annoy others. Once a call is being received, radiotelephone features cannot typically be changed. There is a resulting need for a way to quickly enable user features of a radiotelephone while an event, such as an incoming call, is occurring.